Congress also has it's own Congressional Research Service (CRS) which does most of the research that goes into bills. This service is in addition to lawyers which lawmakers have on their staff. Not all CRS Reports are publicly available according to that non-official site. Those that are contain significant information and can be cited in legal work. The official site for publicly available CRS Reports and the CRS Archives is HERE and HERE. Several places on the Internet keep copies of CRS Reports, one good one is HERE (You never know what you'll find there).

Congress also uses reports from the GAO Office which does fine research.

This is the most unbelievable site on the Internet for finding legislation by topic/s. Start HERE but do not register, instead scroll all the way to the bottom left where it says "National Legislative Search," select a State (or set to All States), or Washington DC, or US Congress, then enter TOPIC (ex: sex offenders) and see what you get, you will be overwhelmed. Play with various options it is amazing!

Research Materials:
Now this is for those who really want to get into the law and laws of specific states or territories: Guide to Law Online: U.S. States and Territories What is within that link will overwhelm most, but there is a wealth of knowledge tucked into that link, so, enjoy...

The Federal Register:
Everyone has heard of the Adam Walsh Act, a federal law, which the Dep't of Justice is charged with handling everything with respect to that law. All federal laws are put into play by "Rules and Guidelines." When a rule or guideline is needed for a law, the Dep't in charge of the law (Dep't of Justice for AWA) proposes a rule or guideline and makes that "Proposed Rule or Guideline" public before the rule/guideline is put into effect. All federal agencies (Departments, i.e. the Dep't of Justice being one of man federal agencies) must POST in the Federal Register ANY proposed rule/guideline so the public may comment on it. Now, finding out "Whats Happening" is somewhat difficult, so I have written a procedure so folks can check the Federal Register (Daily or When folks want) and find out if any new rule/guideline has been posted for public comment. SO, if you are one who wants to check the Federal Register CLICK HERE for the procedure. The Library of Congress has a very long tutorial on the Federal Register should you be up to a LONG-READ.

When Does the Next Congress Begin:
This is important to registrants because, it means, all the Bills in Congress affecting registrants, not made law in the last Congress, die, they no longer are a worry to registrants. However, that means if a lawmaker's bill died, then s/he has to re-introduce it again in the next Congress before it can be considered again. So, it is important to know when the next Congress begins: CLICK HERE to find out when.

Miscellaneous Government Links: The White House on YouTube and government officials on Twitter

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